


Breaking the Illusion

by OreoLuvr13



Series: Family Ties Verse [10]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:45:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22305112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OreoLuvr13/pseuds/OreoLuvr13
Summary: Lena wakes J when he has a nightmare, things don’t go well. With J on the lam, Baz and Lena comes to some hard truths about the past and the future.Updated: Now a multi-chapter fic. J's nightmares become real when a friend of Damien's shows up. Will he let Baz, Lena, and the rest of the family be there for him this time?
Relationships: Barry 'Baz' Blackwell & Joshua 'J' Cody, Joshua 'J' Cody/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Family Ties Verse [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1163522
Comments: 11
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to britin sterek for the prompt. Sorry it took so long for me to get this out.

_He can’t breathe._

_The more he tries to take a breath in, the greater the struggle. The tightening of his throat only gets worse. He desperately pulls at his neck to get rid of the pressure. To get a breath in. But the pressure only seems to get worse. He kicks his feet out in a desperate move to get the weight off of him. Damien. He scratches and broken pleas rasp from his aching throat. Anything to get this all-consuming weight off of him._

_The tightening isn’t easing up. But his fight is. But not because he’s ready to give in. This isn’t real, J’s mind reminds him. At least not now. He already lived through this. He knows what’s going to happen next. In any second Baz and Pope will come barging in, knocking Damien off of him. And then he will be able to breathe again. Pope will call him name as he struggles to take air into his battered throat while Craig keeps Damien at bay._

_Only this time, it’s not Pope calling his name. It’s Damien. Taunting. “J. J. No one is coming to save you J.”_

_And instead of his breathing getting easier, it’s getting worse. He should have known better. No one is coming to save him. No one did when he was a kid and no one is now. If he’s going to survive this, he’s going to have to save himself._

_A sudden burst of adrenaline fills his veins. He’s not going to die in this shitty apartment and definitely not at the hands of Damien. He starts kicking again and starts swinging and clawing. Anything to get away._

_“J?! J?!” Damien says when J’s fist makes contact, but then Damien’s voice changes. It’s no longer laced with malice but full of fear and desperation. Almost childlike. Almost like…Lena?_

“Lena!” J yells shooting up in his bed. His chest is heaving. He’s covered in sweat. He’s gasping for air. But the worst is the sight by his bedside. Lena’s staring at him with her doe eyes, shellshocked. Her right cheek is red and there’s a large scrape running down it. What the hell happened?

His hand is hurting and he looks down at it. His knuckles are scuffed. He looks back to Lena’s cheek and then his hand, pieces instantly coming together. He did that.

“I…I....”

Lena’s shaking her head and it looks like she’s about to say something else when Baz walks in. “Hey, what are you guys doing up? It’s late.”

Either because he never went to bed so he’s still relatively awake or his paternal instincts are kicking in, whatever it is allows Baz to quickly figure out what has happened. Then again it doesn’t take a genius. Lena’s in her brother’s room in the middle of the night, shaken and nursing a red cheek that is surely going to bruise. J is pale, eyes wide in fright, and covered in sweat.

“J didn’t mean to do it!” Lena quickly defends her brother. Baz closes his eyes for a second. Sick to his stomach that even after all this time, the damage of Baz’s initial rejection of J as his son is still there. That after all they have been through since then, his eight year old still feels the need to defend J to Baz.

“J was having a nightmare and I tried to wake him up. He didn’t know it was me. It was an accident,” Lena explains tearfully.

“Of course it was,” Baz reassures her. He moves closer to his daughter and runs a finger gently down his daughter’s cheek. It’s definitely gonna bruise.

“Is she okay?” J asks from his bed, in that rare desperate voice that Baz has only heard a couple of times. Like when he asked how Lena’s first checkup appointment went after the bone marrow transplant or that time the Commander tore into J after Nicky accidentally shot herself.

“I’m fine,” Lena answers before her father can. Her worried eyes on her brother as he continues to avoid looking at her.

“You heard her,” Baz agrees. “She’s going to be fine.” He’s torn between who to help first. Lena is obviously still shaken up and she’s definitely going to need an icepack to cut down on the swelling. J needs him too, but that’s going to take a little more finesse from the looks of it. J is still in his bed, his eyes fixated on his hands.

“You’ll be okay here for a few minutes? I’m just going to get your sister an icepack and then I’ll be back.” Let him settle Lena a bit before he tries to calm J down.

J nods his head.

“Okay then, come on Lena.” His daughter reluctantly agrees after she first moves towards J before following her father out of the room and into the kitchen.

“It was an accident, Daddy. J didn’t mean to hurt me,” Lena says as he wets a hand towel before gently probing the scrape that’s running down his daughter’s cheek.

“I know that kiddo,” Baz says as he grabs a bag of broccoli from the freezer. He gently places it on Lena’s cheek. Yes, he knows it was an accident, but the question is does J?

He hears footsteps in the hallway. He’s expecting to see J in a few minutes, but instead of the footsteps getting louder they seem to disappear altogether. Next thing he hears is a door slam. Shit.

“J!” Baz yells as he rushes as fast as he can towards the door, cursing his damaged leg the whole way. He opens the door to pure darkness of the night. “J!” But all he hears are the ocean waves and Lena’s approaching steps.

He wants to chase after J. But he knows he can’t. It’s too late to drag Lena around to chase after the teenager. And the teenager clearly needs some time to get his shit together. He does that sometimes when things get too crazy. Maybe J’s going for a run. Getting some fresh air.

“Where’s J? Is he okay, Daddy?” Lena asks quietly.

Baz squeezes her shoulder as they stand in the doorway, looking out into the dark. “J’s going to be okay. Everything’s fine.”

He tells himself that he’s not lying to his daughter or to himself.

**XXXXX**

Everything is not fine. J left the house ten hours ago and Baz hasn’t heard anything. What’s even more concerning is that J took his bike and not the truck making it nearly impossible to track him down. And J’s gun is safely secured in its lockbox making J an easy target for any of their enemies.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Shit!” Baz curses when Pope enters the kitchen. He didn’t hear his brother enter, his attention elsewhere.

Pope holds up his hands as he watches his brother’s manic pacing back and forth in the kitchen. “Easy, Baz. What the hell has you so rattled?”

Baz rubs his forehead and lets out a tired sigh. “Bad night last night. Hey, uh…J isn’t at your place is he?”

“J?” Pope asks shaking his head. “Nah, why would he?”

Baz looks into the living room where Lena is before he continues. “He took off in the middle of the night. He had a nightmare. A really bad one and Lena tried to wake him up.” Baz doesn’t say anything else but he doesn’t need to. From the way his brother looks at Lena, Baz can see that Pope has a good idea of what happened.

“And you have no idea where he is now?”

Baz shakes his head. “Took of outta here hours ago. On his bike. Left his gun here and his phone is going right to voicemail.” He kicks the cabinet hard.

“You need to fucking calm down,” Pope hisses not wanting his niece to hear. “He probably just took off to get some fresh air. You know how he gets when Damien gets inside his head.”

Baz shakes his head. “You don’t get it. He hasn’t even called Lena. She’s called him and left him messages. And nothing.”

Shit. Pope looks in at his niece. J avoiding Baz is nothing new. He’s done that before. But him avoiding Lena, that is. Especially after last night. After what happened he would have thought that J would have called Lena first thing this morning to see if she was okay.

“You’re thinking that something happened to him? That he ran into someone who isn’t exactly a friend.”

Baz slowly nods his head. “We know it’s only a matter of time before the preppers come for us. Not too mention Juan and Sammy after what happened down in Mexico. What if they found J? He’s out there unarmed and on his damn bike!”

Pope motions for Baz to stop with his hands. “J might be a little out of his head right now but he’s not stupid. He’s not gonna do anything risky. My bet is he’s holed up on that beach Julia used to take him to when he was a kid,” Pope says.

“And what if…”

“I’ll call Deran and Craig. They’ll keep an eye out for him. My bet is he’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“You heard from J?” Lena asks hopefully from the doorway.

Pope has to fight back the grimace when he sees niece’s face. The red mark from last night has blossomed into a large, dark bruise covering a large part of her cheek. Even though the scratch has been cleaned, it still looks angry and red. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I haven’t heard from him, but I bet he will be back soon.”

“I hope so,” Lena says as she sits down at the kitchen island. “I wish he would pick up his phone. I would tell him that I know he didn’t mean to hurt me. Then maybe he would come home if he knows I don’t blame him.”

Pope looks to Baz at a loss. How do you explain to an eight year old that the brother she adores is riddled with more self-esteem issues and PTSD than anyone should have, let alone a nineteen year old.

For the most part Lena is pretty much in the dark about what happened with Damien and J. No one has ever told Lena about the abuse J sustained at the hands of Damien. And up to recently, she has been pretty much oblivious to the nightmares. The majority of the time, J has slept at Smurf’s so most of his nightmares would occurred when he’s been over there. But that all changed with the appearance of Angela. Not only did J end up sleeping more nights than not at his father’s but Baz also believes that the former drug addict’s appearance has triggered the nightmares.

“You telling him that it was an accident might make him feel better, but it might not. He might not believe it,” Baz says as he takes a seat next to his daughter.

“Why?”

Baz takes a breath before he continues. He has to be careful with what he’s about to tell Lena. He needs to tell her a little about what has happened to J to help explain why they’re where they are. But he doesn’t want to tell her too much that will lend her to have her own nightmares and to betray J’s trust.

“Before J moved in with Grandma Smurf, some people hurt him pretty bad. And then they hurt him again,” Baz says.

“Is that why J has nightmares and doesn’t always sleep a lot?” Lena asks.

So maybe Lena did know more than they thought. Baz nods. “Yeah, kiddo. Sometimes he dreams that he’s back there with the people who hurt him. He fights back when he thinks he’s going to get hurt. That’s why he hit you,” Baz says as he pushes his daughter’s hair behind her ear. “You know it was accident. I know it was an accident. That your brother never meant to hurt you, but J might not believe that.”

Lena bites her lip. “Then we’ll have to keep telling him that it was until he believes it.”

**XXXXX**

“Heard anything?” Baz asks into the phone. He feels Lena’s eyes on him. He tried to get her to go to Crystal’s for the day so he go look for J, but his daughter wouldn’t have it. She insisted on tagging along so it forced him to take the more passive approach in finding his son. He and Lena spent the day checking out all the places they thought J might have gone to. Pope took the more hands on approach when speaking to some of their contacts to get information.

 _“No luck. I got nothing,”_ Pope says _. “Deran hasn’t seen him around the bar and Craig said he hasn’t seen him on the beach.”_

“Shit,” Baz says as he and Lena make their way up the stairs to their house. “Lena and I haven’t had any luck either. We’re home now. Call me if you hear anything.”

 _“Will do. Try and relax. He’ll be fine.”_ Pope says before hanging up.

Easier said than done Baz thinks as he and Lena enters the house. A day of searching and making endless phone calls has resulted in nothing. He still has no idea where J is. No idea if he’s okay or not.

Lena asks if she can go watch tv for a bit, Baz agrees. With Lena settled in front of the television for the time being, Baz heads out the back door with a beer in hand. Maybe the breeze coming off the ocean will bring in a new perspective. Give him some idea where J is or at least an idea of what to do next.

What he’s not expecting but is oh so relieved to see is the back of a very familiar head when he steps onto the back patio. “If I wasn’t so relieved to see you, I would punch you right now.”

J turns around, to anyone else he would look impassive. Like he was unaffected by the previous night’s events. But Baz knows that’s not the case. The kid’s eyes are sad almost pleading. He doesn’t object when Baz takes a seat besides him on the steps.

“You can’t fucking run off like that. Lena and I spent the day looking all over the place for you. You left here in the middle of the night on you bike and with no gun. I was afraid that the preppers or someone else got to you.”

“I’m okay,” J says quietly as he plays with the hem of his t-shirt. “Lena, okay?”

“She’s fine,” Baz says as J shakes his head. “She was a little shaken up, but she’s more worried about you.”

“She shouldn’t be,” J replies. “She got hurt because of me.”

Baz shakes his head. “She got hurt because of an accident. You did not mean it. She knows that and I know that. I know that you don’t believe that right now, but it’s true.”

J remains quiet as he looks out to the water. After a few minutes, Baz decides to approach the next topic.

“I know that I’m the last one to be saying this, with the way I disappear down to Mexico for days at a time. But you can’t go awol like that. You left here last night unarmed. You weren’t answering your phone. You were out there vulnerable with enemies closing in all around. You can’t do that. The next time you need a break, say something. Or at least answer your damn phone.”

J shakily nods his head. “’kay.”

The two sit there quietly for a few minutes taking in the calmness of the ocean.

“J!” Lena yells running full speed towards her brother. That’s the only warning he has before she’s wrapping her arms tightly around her brother’s neck. “You’re back.”

J’s eyes fall when he sees his sister’s bruised face.

“It’s okay,” Lena says. “I know it was an accident. That you were having a bad dream. Daddy told me that sometimes when you dream you think you’re with people who hurt you. That it’s them you’re fighting in your dreams.”

J doesn’t answer but doesn’t move as Lena only hugs him tighter. “You didn’t answer your phone. I called you a hundred times. Did you listen to my messages?”

J shakes his head. “’didn’t listen to them.”

He doesn’t say, but Baz has idea of what J was thinking. That he was afraid of what was said on those messages. His worse fears coming true. Baz and Lena telling him to stay gone. That they didn’t need him around.

“I was telling you to come home. That it was an accident and that you didn’t mean to hurt me and that Daddy was worried that someone hurt you.”

J looks at Baz in alarm. Baz only gives him a “your sister is a lot smarter than we think” look.

“And I even said that you can choose where we go the next time we go out to eat. Even if it’s that place where you get that gross clam pizza you like.”

J lets out a small laugh when he hears of his sister’s desperate bargaining chip to get him to come home. Lena must have been out of her mind with worry if she was willing to make such a concession. She normally refuses to even hear the suggestion of Alberto’s because of that “nasty clam pizza.”

“Please don’t run away again,” Lena mumbles into her brother’s neck.

“I won’t,” J agrees after a few minutes. “I promise.”

“Good,” Baz says slapping his knees before standing up. “Now that everything’s settled, I say we get some dinner.”

“I know exactly the place,” J says as Lena untangles herself from her brother.

“Ughhh,” Lena moans. “I never should have said that.”

“I’m sure your brother is glad you did,” Baz says as they walk towards the front of the house. He looks to the teenager. And not just the part of Alberto’s. Baz feels himself begin to relax as he sees the tension in J’s body gradually lessen as they drive to Alberto’s.

Yes, the Alberto concession definitely helped bring J around. But Baz is pretty sure that wasn’t the only reason. Maybe what he and Lena said sunk in. That they know J didn’t mean to hurt Lena and that it was an accident. That him running away scared the shit out of them.

And if he doesn’t believe it now, they’ll go with Lena’s approach, Say it until J believes it’s true.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A face from the past (and J’s nightmares) makes appearance bringing up old memories of Damien. When Damien showed up years ago, J kept everything to himself. Will this time be different?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was originally meant to be a one-shot and I was satisfied with the ending. But then I got two very lovely reviews in the last week requesting I add a little more. So I decided to continue it by tying in another story idea I’ve been toying with. These new chapters will follow the same general premise of the first where Lena and Baz help J deal with his nightmares. Only this time the nightmare becomes all too real when another face from the past shows up.

“Shit,” Lena says as she crashes to the ground as she climbs out of J’s truck. “You had to get a truck that you need a step stool to get down from.”

J can’t help but smile when he hears his sister curse.

“It’s not my fault that you missed the step bar,” J says coming around the front of the truck to see Lena on the ground.

Lena is in the middle of a growth spurt. She had to go shopping for new clothes twice already this year because she’s outgrowing her clothes so fast. Making her shorts so short that her father’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw her wearing them. The other effect of Lena’s growth spurt, she’s still not used to her longer limbs, making her accident prone more than ever. 

“Hey, are you okay?” A stranger walking by asks as Lena sits up scraping the dirt off her skinned knee. She lets out a loud hiss.

“Lena?” J asks as he kneels down besides his sister, taking a look at he bloody knee. Nothing major. But she’s definitely going to need to have it cleaned out.

“I’m okay,” Lena says without missing a beat. “Doesn’t even hurt.”

The stranger laughs. “Gotta say I’m impressed..that look like it stung a bit.”

J looks the stranger up and down. Tall, not too tall. Hair parted on the side. He’s wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt. Doesn’t look like’s he carrying anything. Still, he steps closer to Lena. You can never be too sure. Not with the Preppers out there and people looking for an opening to step up now that Smurf is gone.

“You good?” J asks when Lena stands up, dusting dirt off the back of her shorts.

“I’m fine,” Lena says as she begins to walk towards Deran’s bar.

J turns to follow his sister, his mind on alert when he notices the good samaritan didn’t turn to leave but is following them towards the bar. J picks up his pace.

“Hey, we’re not open until noon,” Deran calls from the bar without looking up.

“I just need to use your bathroom,” Lena says as she walks in.

“Lena?! What are you doing here?” Deran yells looking up and turns towards J. “I can’t have a kid in here, man. You trying to get me shut down?”

“Hey, you’re the one who called me saying you need me to do your 941’s.” J says as he makes his way towards the bar and Lena goes to the bathroom.

“I did. I didn’t tell you to bring your sister,” Deran replies, drying a glass with a towel.

“What was I supposed to do leave her at home? She’s nine. Baz isn’t coming home until tomorrow, I couldn’t leave her home alone.”

“Smurf would have.”

J tilts his head to the side. “You do realize what you just said, right?”

“Shut up,” Deran says. He places a messy pile of papers in front of J before he turns towards the door. Seeing the man from the parking lot who followed J and Lena in. “Hey, who are you?”

The man moves towards the bar, holds his hand out in introduction. “I’m Brian Pierozinski. My friends call me Pieroge. Marco’s friend. I heard you might have some work for me.”

J drops his pencil. His hand is shaking. His throat feels tight.

“Yeah, Craig said you’re looking for a job.”

_J slowly opens the door to their apartment. He’s not sure what he’ll walk into. It’s the first of the month. His mom and Damien just got their checks. They could be home partying or maybe they’ll be out. He hopes they won’t be home._

_That hope is dashed when he hears Damien call from the couch, “Hey, J.” Someone is sitting next to him, but J doesn’t know who it is. He’s never seen him before. J turns to go towards his room. He just got a new book from the library that will occupy him for the next couple of days. But then Damien motions for him to come closer. J looks around for his mom, but he doesn’t see her._

_“Your mom isn’t here. She’s out with Angela,” Damien says with a crooked smile. It’s like he’s in J’s head. He always know what J is thinking. He pats the empty space on the couch between him and the other man. “Come say hi to my friend.”_

_J looks towards his room._

_“Come on, J.” Damien says. The niceness that was in his voice when J first entered the apartment isn’t there. He’s getting annoyed with J’s attempts to avoid him. “Now.”_

_And there it is. It’s no longer a request. J slowly walks towards the couch. He knows that it will be better if he just does what Damien wants now._

_“That’s a good boy,” Damien coos as J gets sits on the couch between Damien and his friend. “J, say hi to my friend, Brian.”_

_“Nice to meet you,” Brian says moving closer to J so that their thighs are touching. “But you can call me Pieroge. All my friends do and I think we’re going to be friends.”_

“How much longer, J? J?” Lena asks as she places a hand on J’s arm. He flinches back. Hard. “You okay, J?”

J shakes his head. Hoping to shake away the memory. “What did you say?”

Lena rolls her eyes. “I asked how long this is going to take,” she says motioning to the pile of papers on the bar.

“You wanna go?” J asks.

Lena nods. “Haley texted me when I was in the bathroom cleaning up my knee. She wants me to come over. Can I? I’ll be home for dinner.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” J says. He’ll take any excuse to get out of there. He starts putting the papers into a neater pile. “You want me drop you off?”

Lena nods, her phone already out. ”Yeah, I’ll let Haley know you’re dropping me off.”

They’re heading towards the door when Deran calls out, stopping mid conversation with his new hire. “Where the hell are you going man? I need those quarterly taxes done. They were due three weeks ago.”

J waves him off. “I’ll do them at home. I have to get Lena to her friend’s.”

“Fine!” Deran replies. “I want them first thing tomorrow morning.”

J nods as they leave. It might be his imagination and there may be a wall between him and Brian, but he can still feel the older man’s eyes on him.

**XXXXX**

While Lena was at her friend’s house, J stayed busy. He finished the bar tax forms for Deran, went to the bowling alley to check on things, and took a five mile run. Then he made dinner for him and Lena. Did two loads of laundry. Anything to not think about who showed up at the bar.

But now it’s almost midnight. The laundry is washed, folded, and put away. The dishes from dinner are in the dishwasher. Lena’s in bed so there’s nothing to distract him from his thoughts. If Baz was home, he would go out. Maybe head to campus, He knows someone in his business accounting class is throwing a party tonight.

Instead, he’s on the back patio sipping a beer. He tries to stay away from the hard alcohol when he’s around Lena. Bad things happen when he drinks hard liquor. When he picked up the twelve pack on his way home from dropping Lena off at her friend’s, he was hoping that the beer would turn off his mind. Stop him from thinking about things he doesn’t want to. No such luck.

He rubs his eyes tiredly. He knows that he should head to bed. But he knows it’s going to be a waste of time. He’s not going to be able to sleep.

Brian, not Pieroge, because he is not Brian’s friend may not have recognized him, but J knows exactly who he is.

J knows that he should probably tell Baz about Brian. Things are different now. It’s not like how things were back before when Damien first showed up. When J was so unsure of his place in the family that he kept the truth about Damien quiet. Back when Baz refused to acknowledge J as his son. But since then things have changed. Baz and Lena are a big part of his life now. And Baz has said on more than one occasion that he wants J to come to him when something comes up that he can’t or want to handle by himself. That J doesn’t need do deal with everything on his own anymore. 

Despite this, J doesn’t want to be that scared kid that Baz, Pope, and Craig found after that last brutal altercation with Damien. He worked so hard to move past that. To prove that he’s stronger than that. That he earned his place in the Cody family.

He finishes the last of his beer and places it besides the three other empty bottles on the table.

Then J’s mind switches into a different direction. Brian said he’s a friend of Marco’s. Marco is Lucy’s brother. And Lucy has a son about the same age as he was when Damien and Brian was around. He knows enough about pedophiles to know that a lot are repeat offenders. What if he goes after Lucy’s kid because he said nothing?

J takes a large sip of beer. But Marco is not just Lucy’s brother, he’s also a business associate of the family. What if J says something and Marco doesn’t believe him and takes Brian’s word? Then they lose Marco and all of Marco’s business contacts. Baz and his uncles will be pissed.

Fuck. J takes another sip of beer. Swallowing quickly when the beer and the chicken parm he made for dinner attempt to make a reappearance.

“J?” Lena calls from the door. “Why are you out here? It’s late.”

He turns when he hears his sister. He places the beer he’s drinking on the ground hoping she doesn’t see it. He fails miserably when he sees her eyes track sadly to the three empty beer bottles on the table.

“Lee? What are you doing up? You should be in bed,” J says, taking special care not to slur his words. He might have only had four beers. But he didn’t start until almost eleven, after Lena went to bed.

“You should be too,” Lena says walking barefoot across the patio. “You can’t sleep?”

He doesn’t need to answer her. The answer is pretty obvious. Lena is too smart for her own good. Her physical age may be nine years, but what she has already experienced in her nine years make her seem so much older. Like him.

J doesn’t know how much his sister knows about Damien. But she clearly knows something. She was basically glued to his side after Damien nearly strangled him. He remembers the first time he woke up after the attack to find her looking at him with sad eyes as she took in the full extent of the beating. He remembers overhearing Lena asking Smurf why he flinches sometimes when someone touches him. She knows enough not to say anything when J is taking a long shower. And more recently she learned to not get too close to him if she sees that J is having a nightmare.

Lena may know about Damien per se but she at least the aftereffects of Damien. But she will never know about Brian. He’ll make sure of that.

“I’m okay, Lena.” J says standing up. He picks up the empty beer bottles and motions for Lena to head back in. “Go back to bed. I’m right behind you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next up is a prompt from Mooo: “There’s a scene in 1x01 where Julia’s dealer harasses J asking him for money that Julia owes him, maybe he and J could cross paths again and it turns ugly (bit more J whump).”


End file.
